The Institute of Race Relations today reproduced a letter signed by academics in the Yorkshire region expressing concerns over the awarding of a housing contract to a private company.
Read the full letter here
More information is also online in this campaign briefing by South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group.
Late last year, G4S were announced as the preferred bidders for the contract for housing in the north east for people seeking sanctuary. The formal contract is due to be awarded in February.
People arriving in the UK in search of sanctuary were once able to access welfare benefits and council housing on the basis of need, like people already living in the UK, but a series of harsh legislation brought in from 1996 onwards withdrew this, and, after attempts by the government to leave all new arrivals destitute were ruled unlawful, created a separate system for support for people seeking sanctuary.
These changes, setting up a parallel system, can be seen as a divide-and-rule tactic, segregating people seeking sanctuary from other council house tenants and welfare claimants.
At the same time, this legislation paved the way for the privatisation of parts of the support service, services which were once public. The Institute for Race Relations, discussing the 1999 Asylum and Immigration Act, explains:
‘Lucrative contracts to house asylum seekers were frequently taken up by local authorities, sub-contracted to accommodation providers and then sub-contracted further to private landlords. The result was a housing system which in many instances was poorly regulated, substandard and unsafe’.
In the North East, one of the private companies providing housing was Angel Group, investigated for ‘financial irregularities’ , and the subject of many protests.
Private sector involvement has now increased, with local authority contracts being dropped in favour of contracts with 3 multinationals – Serco, Reliance and G4S – who have contracts between them covering the whole of the UK.
G4S, who are set to get the contract for the north east, are the world’s largest security company and have contracts to transport, detain and imprison throughout the world.
Going under the company slogan ‘Securing Your World’, G4S have contracts for several immigration prisons and short-term holding facilities in the UK. An unannounced visit to one of these by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons last year found numerous problems, and campaigners have highlighted the poor treatment people held there face. A Freedom of Information Request showed 773 complaints from people held in these centres in 2010.
G4S recently got a contract to run Birmingham prison, the first public prison in the UK to be transferred to the private sector, and hold contracts for other private prisons, as well as Secure Training Centres and Youth Offender Institutes where children and young people are held. Child prisons such as these were described in a recent ruling by the courts as places where unlawful use of force against large numbers of children was widespread.
G4S are involved in court security, prisoner transport and electronic tagging, and have the contract for security at the Olympic Games in London. G4S have received criticism recently for their involvement in the border security industry in Palestine.
Globally, G4S are huge profiteers of the Prison Industrial Complex .
Contracting G4S for social housing has been criticised, for example in protests in South Wales where a G4S housing consultation was disrupted, and there are many reasons why…
In 2010 G4S were accused of killing Jimmy Mubenga, who died after being restrained by G4S security guards during a forcible deportation to Angola. Three G4S guards were arrested and are still under investigation.
In response, protests and vigils against G4S have been held, including at the company’s AGM last year.
In July 2011, Amnesty International called for a complete overhaul of enforced removals by private security companies, after researching and documenting allegations of excessive force and other abuse carried out by private security staff, including G4S, while in January 2012, a Home Affairs Select Committee report investigating the death of Jimmy Mubenga criticised the “cosy relationship” between UKBA and its private contractors. Statewatch also reported on the ‘privatised manslaughter’.
In Australia, G4S pleaded guilty in 2011 after a man died of heat-stroke whilst being transported by G4S staff in the back of an un-airconditioned van in 40 degree heat .
This and many more of the horrors of G4S were highlighted by protesters in Tucson, Arizona, who took action last year to expose the G4s’ profiteering from misery and suffering, saying ‘G4S not only reaps the profits of border enforcement, they also shape public policy to criminalize immigrants and ensure a steady stream of people to fill their buses and jails’.
In ‘Security and immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease’ Didier Bigo discusses the way the idea of ‘security’ has been transformed in ways which meet the interests of security professionals, expanding their sphere of influence.
In the UK, research has shown that G4S pays £45,000 a year to former defence secretary John Reid MP (now Lord Reid) for ‘strategic advice’, and got contracts with government departments whilst Reid was still in office.
G4S recently got a contract for the much criticised ‘workfare’ programme – forced unpaid labour for people in receipt of benefits. In taking over this contract, G4S have also been accused of trampling on workers’ rights, not uncommon for G4S, who were investigated in 2006 for breaching labour rights in several countries.
A report by UNI Property Services and Alliance for Justice at Group 4 Securicor in 2007, highlighted frequent violations of labour laws by G4S in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa and brought attention to the racism, poverty wages, and oppression faced by people employed by G4S in those countries.
Whilst in the UK, changes to the welfare system and changes to the asylum support system are pushing people further and further into poverty, companies like G4S are raking in profits from contracts. Nick Buckles, chief executive of G4S, took home £3.8 million last year, whilst slashing of the housing budget for asylum seekers, pensions, welfare, and public services began.
The example of G4S illustrates the practices that are part and parcel of the current economic system, a system based on ‘securing the world’ for the privileged few – increasing their power, privilege and wealth at the expense of the many.
Resist G4S!
Resist profiteering, segregation, exploitation and oppression!
Anti-cuts protestors, anti-capitalists, welfare claimants, people migrating, prison resistors, workers’ rights activists, trade unionists, everyone!
Meet G4S, Government’s untouchable friend, Clare Sambrook, 15 October 2010
Corporate Watch http://www.corporatewatch.org/
Campaign Briefing by South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group.
Group 4 Securicor Attacks South African Shack Dwellers’ Movement, 2009
Surveillance + detention = £Billions: How Labour’s friends are ‘securing your world’ Clare Sambrook, 13 April 2010
Selling the state: the ‘unethical’ companies taking over UK public services, Tom Sanderson, 2011
Public Spending Cuts Savage Dispersal System, Institute for Race Relations, 2011
Poor, excluded and forgotten: asylum seekers and the welfare state, Child Poverty Action Group, 2003
Changing Support for Asylum Seekers: An Analysis of Legislation and Parliamentary Debates, University of Sussex, Sussex Centre for Migration Research, 2008
What is the Prison Industrial Complex? Rachel Herzing, Critical Resistance
Security and immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease, Didier Bigo, 2002
INQUEST Briefing: Jimmy Mubenga, INQUEST, 2011
Outsourcing Abuse, Birnberg Peirce & Partners, Medical Justice and NCADC, 2008
2011 involved a variety of actions, talks and events for No Borders North East…
Actions included some of the group travelling to Dale Farm, a site home to travellers who were threatened with eviction. Residents and visitors worked hard to resist eviction together, including building barricades, securing people’s homes and mounting challenges in the law courts. The Traveller Solidarity Network, a network of Travelling and settled people, working together to promote and effect equality, challenge discrimination and work against evictions has emerged from the resistance.
Some people from No Borders NE went to the No Borders camp in Bulgaria, spending a week in an area key to the expansion of the EU border regime. Discussions, film showings and protests were arranged in towns and villages locally and in nearby sites in Greece which raised awareness and provided information about detention centres, border controls, economic migration and what people can do. One outcome of the camp was to show people who lived in the region and are affected by border controls, that there was transnational support for freedom of movement.
In November people joined protests against dawn raids snatching people from their homes in Glasgow. The protest stopped any vans going out that day, keeping the gates shut for a marathon 10 hours!
In December No Borders NE held a protest against deportations, at North Shields UKBA reporting centre, supported by Tyneside Community Action Against Racism and others.
Films Without Borders Film Festival at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, with local invited speakers, helped build links with other groups. Issues covered in the film series included journeys, destitution, living conditions and resistance.
The group ran a busy workshop at the Free Hetherington Glasgow University Student Occupation, linking border control regimes to an unequal economic system, exploitation and creation of cheap labour markets and reinforcing privilege. The workshop was also run by No Borders NE in a series of seminars as part of a module at Newcastle University.
Some people were invited to contribute to a handbook for ‘radical teenagers’ and created a graphic novel zine, showing individuals journeys being compared and linked in terms of nationality and privilege.
People involved in No Borders North East also went to Beyond Borders Day School in Bristol, Bridget Anderson (Justice For Domestic Migrant Workers, Oxford University), spoke on “Why No Borders?”, Clara Osagiede (RMT Cleaners Rep, Living Wage Campaign) spoke on “Migrant Worker Struggle” and Ann Singleton (Statewatch) discussed “The Changing Meaning of Borders in the EU”.
Newcastle Conversation Group continued to be lively and busy every week offering friendship and mutual aid, as well as putting on events, fundraising, supporting the campaign against ESOL cuts and more.
Onward to solidarity and resistance in 2012!
To get involved, contact nobordersnortheast[@]ucrony[.]net
Find news on the No Borders Convergence coming up in February 2012 here and in several languages here
The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns is a UK organisation which supports community-led campaigns for justice in the asylum and immigration system, with a focus on supporting people facing forced removal.
Their news service gives up to date information on immigration and asylum issues.
See their review of stories from 2011 here, including on the opening of a new immigration prison in Lincolnshire, whistleblowing about ‘lethal techniques’ used by private company G4S during forced removals, resistance to charter flights and loads more…
More info on charter flights
http://stopdeportations.wordpress.com/about-charter-flights/
No Borders! No Nations! Stop Deportations!
Last week saw protests against a UK charter flight to Sri Lanka, in which activists struck at the heart of the Government’s “unjust deportation machine”, and blocked the road outside Colnbrook and Harmondsworth immigration prisons with ‘lock-on’ devices and a tripod.
Today, Monday 19 Dec, the UK Border Agency are carrying out a mass deportation of Afghan asylum seekers to Kabul.
In response to this there will be a protest at 12 noon outside of the UKBA Reporting Centre in North Shields, Tyne & Wear.
Charter flights are a numbers driven exercise to remove as many people as possible. They are conducted under a veil of secrecy which denies deportees access to justice. With the secrecy surrounding charter flights it is impossible to know how many other deportees on this, and other flights have been similarly denied access to justice and equality.
The UK asylum determination system is structured towards denying as many applications as possible. Because of this, people who are in need of sanctuary are refused status, made destitute and subjected to violent enforcement procedures. Charter flights such as this one and forced removals in general must be stopped.
Afghanistan is not safe
With regard to Afghanistan, just 2 weeks ago, Human Rights Watch reported:
‘Conflict-related violence remains a daily reality in many parts of the country.’
[Human Rights Watch – Afghanistan: A decade of Missed Opportunities 4 Dec 2011 http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/03/afghanistan-decade-missed-opportunities ]
The United Nations also has also raised concerns about conditions for people returned to Afghanistan:
‘The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that a significant number of all returnees (potentially 40 per cent) are still in need of reintegration support and that many (potentially 28 per cent) are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.’
UN, The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, 09/03/2011. http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1226_1300285687_n1125034.pdf
Yet the UK Border Agency ignore these reports in favour of out of date country evidence which supports their claim that Afghanistan is a safe place.
Stop Deportations
Forced removals such as this are an illustration of the violence and indifference that are essential components of the UK’s dehumanising migration regime. The vast majority of deportations have been to countries devastated by wars and armed conflicts such as Afghanistan, Iraq, DR Congo, Nigeria, Jamaica, Sri Lanka. After being forcibly deported, many have been kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured and killed. Others have had to change their identities or move again to avoid persecution. Forcible deportations tear apart people’s lives as they are split from their families and communities and their right to freedom of movement is denied.
Stop Deportations! Freedom of Movement for all!
More on Afghanistan:
UK Government, on the Foreign and Commonwealth office’s website, states that Kabul is not a safe place:
‘No part of Afghanistan should be considered immune from violence and the potential exists throughout the country for hostile acts.’
‘The kidnap threat throughout the country remains high, particularly against local nationals.’
‘We advise against all but essential travel to Kabul. There are regular, indiscriminate rocket and bomb attacks in the city.’[1]
UKBA’s own Country of Origin Information Report on Afghanistan in 2008 stated ‘It is not difficult to track people down in Afghanistan…‘
On Monday 19th September, after a stressful day of waiting for the 1st attempt by baliffs to enter Dale Farm travellers site - which certainly would have been repelled – residents and their supporters could relax for a couple of days thanks to a rare positive intervention on the part of the travellers from a high court judge… Read more in Dale Farm Lives On ! a report by Bristol No Borders.
The latest news is that the Dale Farm case is back in the courts on Friday 23 Sept, see below for the call-out for ongoing support.
Dale Farm eviction postponed (but not cancelled)….
CALL OUT!
Although Dale Farm residents won an injunction in the High Court, this only postpones the eviction until Friday. At 11.30am the court will consider the technical legality of the notices which the council issued. Depending on the outcome of this hearing, the eviction may be reactivated immediately on Friday afternoon.
We’re here in solidarity with the residents for as long as they want us to support them. The residents have made it clear to us that, should the eviction be reinstated, they want our strong and continued support to resist it.
This means we need to be prepared to show a very strong presence on Friday should the hearing permit the council to restart eviction proceedings. Supporters will need to be on alert and ready to come down to the site immediately on Friday, given a negative outcome.
Come to the High Court on the Strand to show your solidarity with the Dale Farm residents at 11.30 on Friday or come to the site.
Solidarity is needed at Dale Farm, Essex, with ongoing activities against the upcoming forced eviction of 90 families.
Basildon Council has said the eviction is planned to take place week beginning 19th September 2011, when electricity supplies will also be cut.
Dale Farm residents are calling on supporters to come and help them stop the eviction. They are also calling for legal observers and human rights monitors to come down to act as witnesses. Dale Farm is only a half hour by train from London Liverpool Street Station. http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/contact
The council has threatened to close roads around Dale Farm in advance of the eviction, so it is recommended that people come as many days before the eviction as possible. Also, there is plenty of work needed to prepare in advance. Sleeping space in homes are available, but please bring a tent if you can as bed space limited to those in need. People are welcome at Dale Farm any time. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity for details.
Tat list http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/tat-needed/
The No Border camp set-up began a week before the opening, with lots of preparation work like digging trenches for water supply, and building infrastructure.
One of the aims of the camp was raising the issue of the border locally, and supporting and extending local solidarity work.
Film screenings and discussions took place in local villages in the run up to the camp, where there were really interesting conversations with local people on the frontline of the border regime, who told stories of meeting people crossing the border in search of safety and security.
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Detention Centre in Lyubimetz
Other people discussed government and media propaganda on the new detention and reception centres, and were keen to see what they were like in reality.
The Camp was visited by lots of people from nearby Siva Reka and Svilengrad, including at a dinner for the local community and at the party at the end of the camp, and good relations were built up in the local area.
At the border...
Throughout the week, workshops and discussions took place including on the situation in Greece, the Welcome to Europe project, privilege and racism, People of Colour self-organisation and empowerment, sharing experiences of supporting people who are migrating, No Border camps – experiences and expectations, Theatre of the Oppressed, and loads more…
There were also demonstrations, street theatre and other events.
Demonstration at Lyubimetz
On 26th August a march took place in Svilengrad, 27 August saw events at the Bulgaria-Greece and Bulgaria-Turkey border, and on 29th August a demonstration was held at the detention centre in Lyubimetz, more info in press releases below.
Camp press releases
No Border Camp 2011 – first demos at the border crossings with Greece and Turkey
No Border Camp 2011 – Demonstration in front of the detention center in city of Lyubimetz
Photos
Protest in Svilengrad – http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38011
Border protest – http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38012
Detention centre demonstration – http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38020
No-Border-Cats in Svilengrad – http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/article/38015
Policing the border during protests
Blogs
http://a3yo.noblogs.org/post/2011/09/02/nobordercamp-bulgaria-2011-expectations-and-arrival/
http://a3yo.noblogs.org/post/2011/09/02/nobordercamp-bulgaria-2011-actions-in-svilengrad/
Other news articles
http://no-racism.net/article/3888/ (in German)
http://no-racism.net/article/3892/ (in German)
Camp news page
http://www.noborderbulgaria.org/en/node/49
Borders of Bulgaria in the news
http://www.noborderbulgaria.org/en/node/12
'Die-in' on the road at the Bulgarian border
Lyubimetz demonstration
Siva Reka, site of the No Border Bulgaria camp, is a small village in the border region close to the border with Greece and Turkey. It is a region without much work which seems to have resulted in many people moving away to work (to other cities and countries). And with a lot of EU money invested in ‘security’ – jobs with the border authorities are one of the few opportunities. Many people have relatives and friends who work in these jobs.
The region has been affected by the border in various ways at different times. During the Balkan Wars, population exchange programmes took place, while during the Cold War period the Bulgarian-Turkish border was one of the most heavily fortified in Europe. Today, the region is one of both inward and outward migration.
The border is now being fortified, as Bulgaria tries to join the Schengen Agreement area - in which EU states have reduced border controls within the EU (for EU nationals), and at the same time a strengthened external border, sometimes described as ‘Fortress Europe’.
Detention Centre in Lyubimetz
In Lyubimetz, 20km from the No Border camp, a new 350 capacity detention centre has been built, funded with 80% European funding, and in Pastrogor, a few more km away, a 350 capacity fast-track ‘transit centre’ is about to open. Other centres have opened in Sofia, Busmantzi and Banya. The border itself is being fortified, with increased controls, extending the quantity and quality of border surveillance and monitoring equipment, new migrant and visa legislation, as well as other measures. Bulgaria has spent 160 million euros during the last three years for “strengthening its borders”, 80% financed by the European Union. The EU is increasing its allocation of funds for the implementation of border management to Bulgaria in 2012 through the External Borders Fund. More info on Bulgaria and Schengen at http://noborderbulgaria.org/en/node/33
Svilengrad is a small town in the border region where alot of inward and outward migration takes place but without much active opposition to the nationalistic Bulgarian state attitude on migration and miltarisation of the borders. On Friday (26th August) hundreds of people from the No Borders camp organised actions in the town to demonstrate against Frontex who have a regional office in the town centre, to commemorate that hundreds of people have died trying to arrive in the region without official status and to discuss migration issues with people who live in the area.
Info displays in Svilengrad
Street displays A large world map was presented in different locations along the main street and people invited to draw onto it with pens their histories of migration. People who lived in the area often initially responded that they’d lived in the town all their lives, but it turned out to be more indirect than that. People from the No Borders camp got going discussions about why people move and why States try to stop people from free movement. There were lots of positive conversations and people taking part.
Demonstration outside the Border Agency, Svilengrad. Picture from http://a3yo.noblogs.org/
Demonstration against Frontex (more info about Frontex here). Hundreds of people gave out flyers with information about a detention centre recently built in the region and walked to the office of the Border Agency, who carry out joint operations with Frontex. Shoes were laid and candles lit to symbolically draw attention to the inhumane cruelty of Frontex’ s work. These actions made the front page of a local newspaper,with a photo and caption: “hundreds of young people from EU countries demonstrated yesterday for rights for migrants and refugees”. It ignored the political angle of border control systems and just went for a humanitarian focus, but is pretty good for a generally very very nationalistic country. Another newspaper reported that the young demonstrators broke windows, attacked people and were naked, which was definitely not true, but shows how much reporters can twist things! The possibility of suing the newspaper is being investigated by people at the Camp.
The Dale Farm estate is a former scrapyard bought by Traveller families and has existed since the 1970s. Basildon Council has targeting half the community for destruction, and has failed to provide alternative sites for families to move to. Families have been given until midnight on August 31st 2011 to abandon their homes or have them bulldozed. Basildon have voted to spend a third of its budget — £8 million demolishing the estate and turning people out onto the road. The policing of what could be a three-week operation has an additional price tag of £10 million, of which £6 million is being provided by the Home Office.
There will be activity weekends at Dale Farm, every Saturday until the opening of Camp Constant, a mass gathering of national and international supporters of the Dale Farm community on the Saturday, 27th, 11 am which is the final weekend before Travellers have been told they must abandon their homes or face the bulldozers. Residents of Dale Farm have invited supporters down for a long weekend of skill sharing and cultural celebration. Join them for:
* Training for legal observers and human rights monitors
* Practical eviction resistance workshops
* Acoustic music on Saturday night
* Media training, including photography, film making, reportage
* Traveller history & celebration
From September 1st onwards, a constant presence at Dale Farm is needed in case of eviction. You can sign up to spend a night at Dale Farm: https://smsalerts.tachanka.org/dalefarm/
Demonstrate on Saturday Sept 10 against the £18 million eviction of 90 Traveller families from their homes and Eric Pickles’s Localism bill, which removes the requirement of local council’s to provide alternative sites.
Dale Farm Solidarity has called a demonstration starting at 1pm on Saturday Sept 10th. Meet at Wickford Train Station, 30 minutes by train from London Liverpool Street Station. The march will then proceed to Dale Farm and Camp Constant, a base for human rights monitors and those who will engage in civil disobedience to stop the bulldozing.
For more information, updates, and to check the dates of activity days see: http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity and https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_124229427082
